An apple a day keeps the oxidants away
This just in from the Department of Duh: fruits and vegetables are good for you. Also, sky is blue and water is wet.
Why diets don’t work: Conclusion, and what DOES work
The short and sweet conclusion I promised? Drastic diets or diets without exercise chew through muscle. Less muscle means lower BMR and more relative bodyfat. Lower BMR means eventually putting on additional bodyfat in the long run. It puts your hormones out of whack and disrupts your appetite and eating patterns. Essentially your whole metabolic environment is screwed up.
It also means that short-term, drastic caloric restriction is not a good solution for long term weight maintenance and bodyfat loss.
Why diets don’t work, problem 4: The band-aid solution
Aside from the physiological effects, possibly the biggest reason why diets don’t work is that people regard them as short-term solutions to a long-term issue. The issue is usually insufficient activity/sedentary and poor nutrition. In some cases it can also be an underlying medical condition such as polycystic ovary syndrome or thyroid disorder. However building muscle can help in both those cases, as it improves insulin resistance as well as adding lean body mass.
Why diets don’t work, problem 3: Hormone hell
Hardcore crash dieters are probably familiar with this phenomenon. They diet stringently, purging all unnecessary calories, for a few days. Maybe even a week. Then, suddenly, appetite becomes overwhelming and the dieters lose control. They binge on whatever they can get their hands on: a bucket of chicken, an econo-size bag of cookies, or what the hell, a block of Crisco. They feel like the biggest, most out of control pig in the world, and indeed they have temporarily lost control of their eating behaviour.
Why diets don’t work, problem 2: Muscle munching
When people drastically reduce their calories, as in most crash diets, the body first turns to muscle breakdown to make up the difference. The same thing happens in most cases of caloric reduction where exercise is not performed in conjunction with dieting. In other words, if you diet without exercising, or if you diet too stringently, your body eats through its muscle tissue.
Why diets don’t work, problem 1: Diet products suck
Most products promoted as weight-loss supplements do not help the body lose fat. So save your money.
Why diets don’t work: introduction
In terms of cultural history, there has never before been a society like ours in North America. We sit in the midst of plenty, yet we obsess about starving ourselves. Our supermarket shelves groan under the weight of every conceivable kind of food, yet it is considered grossly self-indulgent to consume too much of it. Our cravings are not proudly declared, but furtive, embarrassed: we cram a fudge brownie or two on the sly, we make midnight runs to the convenience store for Oreos, we secretly fantasize about cheesecake. All the while we lament our lack of willpower, our inability to stay “on a diet”, our ballooning midsections. We say that we hate the Celebrity Model Du Jour for being so skinny, but privately we know we would walk over broken glass to spend even an hour in a slender body, because that is what our culture values. With these contradictory messages it’s easy to see why so many people have very complicated feelings around food, fat, and dieting.
The worst part is, the damn diets don’t even work! How is that for wasted effort?
Eating for muscle mass gain
Skinny Minnie looking to be She-Hulk? Don’t despair. Just belly up to the bar and start eatin’.
How to gain mass
It’s not a question I encounter as frequently as “how to lose bodyfat?” but there are lots of women out there who do want to be bigger, heavier, and/or more muscular. It’s a refreshing change to answer this question, frankly. The challenge, as many skinny folks have discovered, is how to do it healthily.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the site, it’s counterproductive to try to lose fat at the same time you try to gain mass. It’s like trying to build a house while someone keeps taking the bricks away. Pick one goal and eat and train accordingly.
Diets 101 part 3: Which diet is which?
Some helpful terminology and an explanation of some of the basic approaches.
